Bollywood is an industry which produces over 1000 films every year. Some of those films turn out to do really great business at the box office and manage to rake in huge amounts of money for the producers, while others fail to create an impact on the audience.
Indian cinema is considered to be a star oriented industry. If you have big names in your film, you have more chances to earn profits as a producer. But over the years, there are few films that were made on a very small budget but because of some exceptional acting performances and strong storyline, the films did great business at the box office. Here, we will discuss six low-budget Bollywood films which did exceptionally well at the box-office.
‘Peepli Live’ was directed by Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui in the year 2010. The film was based on farmer suicide issues in India and had no big stars in it, yet it was a box office success. The movie was made with an initial budget of 14 Cr and it collected a total of 46.80 Cr at the box office.
‘Kahaani’ was directed by “Sujoy Ghosh” and it starred Vidya Balan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead. The movie created a great impact on the audience and was one of the highest grossers of 2012. The movie made a total of 92 Cr whereas its production cost was only 20 Cr.
‘Pink’ was a highly anticipated film by the Indian audience. The movie was directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and had a strong cast that included Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu. The film was highly appreciated by the critics and it also did huge business for the producers. The initial production cost of the film was 29 Cr and the film collected a blooming 109 Cr at the box office.
‘Taare Zameen Par’ is a well appreciated film in Bollywood. Not many of us know the fact that the film was only made by a budget of 18 Cr but due to its touching storyline and memorable performances by Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary, the movie proved to be a giant at the box office and gathered about 87.57 Cr in the year 2007.
‘Vicky Donor’ was the debut for both the leads, Ayushman Khurrana and Yami Gautam. The story of a sperm donor connected with the audiences really well. Producers did not invest much on the film and the production cost was limited to only 10 Cr but movie made a total of 62 Cr at the box office and is still remembered as one of the best films of 2012.
‘The Lunchbox’ is actually one of the most beautifully created films ever in Bollywood. The movie had a strong star cast including Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles but at the same time the film had small budget of 20 Cr. But at the end of the day, the movie collected a total of 101 Cr at the box office and turned out to be a real profitable project for the makers.
Published in Daily Times, October 18th 2018.